


sunset bridge

by nolongerataintedsorrow



Series: beneath the mask [2]
Category: Gintama, Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Angst, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:00:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23531218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nolongerataintedsorrow/pseuds/nolongerataintedsorrow
Summary: a series of drabbles wherein Gintoki and Kagura must navigate a world that hates them so.
Relationships: Kagura & Sakata Gintoki, Katsura Kotarou/Sakamoto Tatsuma/Sakata Gintoki/Takasugi Shinsuke (hinted), Otose | Terada Ayano & Sakata Gintoki, Sakamoto Tatsuma/Sakata Gintoki
Series: beneath the mask [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1549195
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41





	sunset bridge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gintoki once knew a one-eyed ghoul; knew him and yet did not, and that gap of knowledge will always be a dagger stabbing into his black heart. But from that ghoul, he learned that natural one-eyed ghouls are able to eat human food -- and from Kagura, he learns that they can taste food like humans can too. That it doesn’t taste disgusting to her. He knows many who would be bitter over that fact -- and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t one of them.

“Out of all the things you could have picked, you chose that?”

He’s referring to the sukonbu that she’s munching on eagerly, plastic pack crinkling in her hands as she clutches it tightly. A woman had bought it for her after catching her staring intently at it in a coupon leaflet, smiled sweetly at her and hesitantly ruffled her dirty hair after handing it over when she got a brilliant grin in return. 

She looks at him, blinking quickly in wonder. “Gin-chan can eat human food too?”

Gintoki once knew a one-eyed ghoul; knew him and yet did not, and that gap of knowledge will always be a dagger stabbing into his black heart. But from that ghoul, he learned that natural one-eyed ghouls are able to eat human food -- and from Kagura, he learns that they can taste food like humans can too. That it doesn’t taste disgusting to her. He knows many who would be bitter over that fact -- and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t one of them.

(But there’s a memory, kept close to his heart. Of _them_ , in the dark, laying on blankets over cool concrete. Three listening, one laughing obnoxiously, all laid close together to keep each other warm. “Hahaha! So, like, imagine something sweet. Then make it extra sweet!”

“That’s not helpful, Tatsuma.” Zura had said. “You can’t just say sugar is something sweet but even sweeter.”

Tatsuma had laughed. “No? But it makes sense!”

“To who?” Shinsuke had snorted out. And yet, despite the clearly terrible quality of Tatsuma’s descriptions, Gintoki had asked, “What about strawberry milk?”

“Oooh! Now that…”)

“...Nah. Just coffee and other stuff.” He says once he realizes she’s still waiting for his answer, and he does his best to go back to focusing on these apartment listings. Last night, they stayed in a shed. The night before that, a locker room for a trashy park’s courts. Kagura had slept in his arms, and he’d spun that umbrella noiselessly, gracefully, to pass the time - to help ignore the pangs of hunger that tore through him with such prey in his grasp. There are a lot of things he still can’t read, but numbers he will never forget, or street names, or district names. A lot of it they can’t afford, even in the shittier and more dangerous wards, but if he could get documentation, then he could start working...Ugh. “But I had a human friend who would tell me about sweets and stuff.”

He can feel her stare, and her interest confuses him. But then she says “A human friend?” with such hope and want, and he knows without even looking at her that she’s gripping onto her own sleeve absentmindedly while she eats. Ah. Yes, of course a young girl such as her would want friends -- his mistake. Even so, his chest aches when she asks, “What happened to him?”

Gintoki closes his eyes. He has many answers to that, each one of them sending a chill down to his bones. Each one causing an itch that he refuses to admit matches the hopeful tone in Kagura’s voice. And isn’t that just fucking stupid?

Cold apathy rushes up and washes over him to overcome the sudden burning in his eyes, but it’s not a relief. At the very least, though, it stills the unbidden tremors in his hands, the unsteady beat of his monstrous heart. At the very least, it allows his voice to be steady. Casual, if not tired. “What happened? What happened is what always happens between a human and a ghoul.”

He doesn’t elaborate further, and Kagura doesn’t ask him to. What she _does_ do is grab onto his sleeve with her fingers, tightly, as though afraid he’ll vanish without her there to anchor him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally satisfied with this first drabble, haha~ please feel free to give me feedback or your thoughts!!


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